Introducing the CPO Accelerator

I’m very excited to announce a new division of Produx Labs, specifically focused on growing future Chief Product Officers for growth stage companies.

In late March of 2018, Shelley Perry of Insight Venture Partners reached out to me about an opportunity. When she asked me what I was passionate about, I said developing great product leaders. Little did I know that would soon become a reality.

Over the next few months, Produx Labs and Insight Venture Partners created a partnership that was two-fold: provide right-sized services to scale Product Organizations at their growth stage companies, while growing future CPOs for those companies.

The partnership is founded on the principle that product drives growth. Solving the right problems, in the right way, is what makes companies win in market. To do that, we need the best product leaders who really get the field. Product is the only position that touches everything across the organization and helps pull it together to create a compelling offering for its customers.

Since the Chief Product Officer role is so new, there are not many people who are perfectly positioned to take on this challenge, yet there are many companies desperate for this leadership. That led us to create the CPO Accelerator — a program within Produx Labs to foster the next generation of CPOs.

Our future CPOs are extremely senior product leaders at top software companies. They join as full time employees of Produx Labs, where they consult our clients on product strategy, organization design, and other product management capabilities. Not only do they get to see a wide variety of companies, but they also receive mentorship and specialized education in the topics that Chief Product Officers must excel at. At the end of the program, we will help them find a home inside a company as a CPO.

We’re excited to welcome our first CPO in Training, Tommi Forsstrom, who started this month. Tommi has previously held product leadership positions at Splice and Shutterstock. I am so excited to have him on the team, as his experience in product strategy and organizational design will provide our clients with much needed expertise.

Produx Labs will continue to service all our clients with their product management needs. We will be building out curriculums and new classes in Product Institute, tailored to all levels of Product people, including the CPO role. Make sure you also keep a look out for and pre-order Escaping the Build Trap, being published on November 14th. It is a guide for creating and scaling product organizations.